Premature ejaculation has throughout been considered a health issue or a syndrome in medical science. This misconception has been studied by researchers, who now claim to have found a new definition to the condition that could improve diagnosis and treatment.
The study examined two categories of men: those who throughout their lives have had premature ejaculation and those who have acquired the condition with passing years.
Under the new definition, premature ejaculation is "acquired" by those who have a normal sexual life, but always ejaculate in less than three minutes post penetration, while the "lifelong" premature ejaculation is what men have been experiencing throughout their lives and that lasts for around one minute after vaginal penetration.
"The lack of an evidence-based definition for acquired premature ejaculation promotes errors of classification, resulting in poorly defined study populations and less reliable and harder-to-interpret data that are difficult to generalize to patients," Science Daily quoted Ege Can Serefoglu, MD, FECSM, of the Bagcilar Training & Research Hospital, in Istanbul, Turkey.
Premature ejaculation can bring personal and inter-personal suffering to men and their partner as well. The study has found that men who tend to have "acquired" premature ejaculation may suffer from negative personal consequences, such as distress, frustration or an evasion of sexual intimacy, according to the researchers. It can also be psychological or due to relationship problems or erectile dysfunction.
The unified definition of acquired and lifelong premature ejaculation will minimize the errors of diagnosing and classifying the problem by providing the doctor with a discriminating diagnostic tool, explained Dr. Ege Can Serefoglu, study researcher of the Bagcilar Training & Research Hospital, in Istanbul, Turkey in a statement to Live Science.
"There are many misconceptions about premature ejaculation. We sought to disseminate the most up-to-date information to non-sexual health specialists so that they can confidently treat patients suffering from this condition. We also reveal the burden of this dysfunction on the patient and his partner and discuss, in depth, the multiple treatments available." said Dr. Stanley Althof of Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in West Palm Beach, Florida.
The new definitions can be used by doctors to diagnose men with the condition and also to design some clinical trials for treatments purposes, the researchers added.
Due to lack of clinical definition of premature ejaculation, it was earlier difficult for researchers to perform clinical trials on experimental drugs and also for doctors to efficiently identify the issue and treat affected patients.
The scientists after reviewing some past data, have found that around 2 to 3 percent of men have all-time premature ejaculation and the rate of acquired premature ejaculation is close to 4 percent among men who are sexually active.
The details of the study have been simultaneously published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine and Sexual Medicine.
